1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD), and more particularly, to an LCD and a driving method thereof which synchronize a panel with an inverter to prevent backlights from being turned off during a mode change of the display.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs), which are being developed to replace cathode ray tubes (CRTs), have advantages of small size, light weight, and low power consumption, such that they are applicable to large information displays as well as laptop computers and desktop computers.
Since LCDs cannot emit light by themselves, they display information by reflecting extraneous light transmitted through an LCD panel, or by installing a separate light source, that is, a backlight assembly on a rear surface of the LCD panel.
A backlight assembly includes a lamp to radiate light, a light guide panel to guide the light radiated by the lamp toward the LCD panel, and optical sheets to diffuse and condense the light guided by the light guide panel to improve luminous efficiency.
A lamp includes lamps acting as a light source for the LCD, reflectors to reflect light radiated by the lamps to improve luminous efficiency, and an inverter connected to the lamp by a wire to apply voltage to the lamps.
For large LCDs, backlights are installed directly below the LCD. In this case, however, the distance between the lamp and the LCD panel is so close that interference occurs between the oscillating frequency of the lamp and the scanning frequency of the LCD panel. Therefore, noise is generated on a screen as a result of the interference between the oscillating frequency of the lamp and the scanning frequency of the LCD panel.
Furthermore, LCDs display signals which are generated in televisions, DTVs, computers, etc. according to a user's selection. Since the signals generated in televisions, DTVs, computers, and so on have different frequencies and formats, a display mode should be changed according to the user's selection. Accordingly, whenever the display mode needs to be changed, a scaler should adjust the level of input signals. Whenever a display mode is changed, horizontal synchronization signals contained in video signals suffer a transient effect. As a consequence, the horizontal synchronization signals directly affect the ability of the panel to function properly.